Area : AEN NEWS
Date : 10-17-95 22:03
From : alt@iquest.net
To : All
Subj : Still no Officer Friendly
From: "Al Thompson"
Originally to: news@aen.org
Organization: American Justice Federation
Original Date: Tue, 17 Oct 95 20:44:10 -0500
Tape of Texas police spraying pepper gas at handcuffed
black woman sparks outrage
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(c) 1995 Copyright The News and Observer Publishing Co.
(c) 1995 N.Y. Times News Service
DALLAS (Oct 17, 1995 - 20:54 EDT) -- Black leaders here
heard an appeal for united action Tuesday following the
broadcast of a police videotape in which three white suburban
officers were shown gassing a handcuffed black woman inside
a jail cell.
The tape, aired on television Monday night, showed police
officers in suburban Lancaster, Texas, spraying a can of
pepper gas into a holding cell where they had just pushed
Cynthia Gillespie, a 30-year-old mother and part-time student
who had been arrested for using abusive language at a video
store.
On the tape, Gillespie is seen making a slight gesture of
resistance. She can be seen twisting her wrists, handcuffed
behind her back, as if to break an officer's grip. The
officer is clutching the handcuffs and using them to steer
her into the room.
It is not possible to see on the tape what happened in the
seconds after she was placed in the holding cell. The tape
shows one of three police officers reaching calmly into the
room and apparently spraying gas from a can about the size
of a typical hair-spray container. A Lancaster city spokesman
said Tuesday the gas used was pepper gas, which causes a
severe burning sensation in the skin and eyes.
Two separate police videotapes were made, one at the scene
of the arrest by a camera in the police car and the second
by a surveillance camera at police headquarters.
"I can't believe the arrogance, that he would do that and
know that they were being taped," said Dallas County
Commissioner John Wiley Price, a prominent African-American
leader who described the incident to a meeting of the city's
black leaders Tuesday.
Price said he was angered by what he considered Officer
Dyson Ward Adams' light punishment -- a 15-day unpaid
suspension, which he began serving the day the tapes were
released.
"We want him prosecuted on assault," said Price, who said
he will push for state and federal investigations of the
incident.
The incident itself occurred in July but only became public
knowledge after Dallas television station KDFW broadcast
portions of the videotapes, which had been acquired by a
Lancaster citizen under the Texas Freedom of Information
Act.
Gillespie was arrested after the manager of a Blockbuster
Video Store complained she had used abusive language in an
argument over the validity of her membership card, according
to her lawyer and a city spokesman.
Price said he knows Gillespie as a community volunteer and
a member of a family that is well known in Dallas. All
charges against her were subsequently dropped by a municipal
judge in Lancaster, according to Donya Witherspoon, Gillespie's
lawyer. Gillespie could not be reached for comment.
In the tapes shown on television, a team of paramedics
arrive within minutes after the gassing to help Gillespie.
Her lawyer said the paramedics took her to a shower where
she stood under the water for 45 minutes. A city spokesman
said she was later taken to a hospital, where she was treated
and released.
--- GEcho 1.02+
* Origin: Ask your FIDO feed for I_UFO! (1:330/201)